


The Consequence of Falling

by ruric



Category: Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)
Genre: M/M, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2004-10-23
Updated: 2004-10-23
Packaged: 2017-11-07 19:54:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 614
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/434768
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ruric/pseuds/ruric
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jack talks to her, but he hears other voices too.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Consequence of Falling

They talk to him all the time now – but only one of them is alive.

He fell in love with her the first time he saw her – her beauty stilled all movement, freezing his breath in his throat. She started to speaking to him that first day and she hasn't stopped since. When he laid his hands on her and felt her move beneath him he knew he'd found the other half of his soul. People laughed at his passion and mocked his obsession, but he didn't care – she was all that mattered.

It took him time to learn how to hear her properly. At first it just sounded like a soft monologue - a run of sibilant and arcane sounds in a foreign tongue, some obscure language of which he had no knowledge. Her sounds caressed him – lulling him to sleep at night and waking him gently in the mornings and he found himself paying attention, listening. Slowly like summer mist lifting off the water he began to recognise repetitions, and he found he could understand her.

Most of the time she's gentle; there's only a susurration of sound, like wavelets breaking against a gradually sloping sandy shore. There have been occasions when she's been strident and angry – but never without good cause.

He loves her with everything in him, and he refuses to think of the time she's spent with other men. He's never dared asked her whether she talks to any other man the way she talks to him because whatever else she may be, she is a lady and you don't ever ask a lady those sorts of questions. His passion is wound up with jealousy too – he doesn't think he'd share her willingly – well maybe with one other.

Of late he's started to hear other voices. Voices that whisper and hiss that aren't friendly. These voices tell him his life and his happiness are a sham – and that it's bound to end in pain and blood and tears. He's trying to ignore those voices – hoping that if he pretends he can't hear them they'll go away. But they've planted the seed of doubt.

He knows he might not be quite sane but between her and Will, they keep him grounded, stop him drifting too far and losing himself. He knows it's not fair, part of him will always belong to her, and Will, well he deserves more. Will deserves someone who is wholly his – but then again for reasons he can't fathom, Will doesn't seem to mind sharing him.

Will says he can always tell when the Pearl's talking to him. Will says he gets a faraway look in his eyes, like he's trying to see beyond the horizon, and that the extravagant gestures stop and he seems to be at peace. Will's right – the only time he knows peace is when he can hear the Pearl, or when he's wrapped up in Will's arms and Will's passion.

Will also seems to know when the others talk to him. Then he'll let Will take him out and get him drunk, even lead him into a fight; or kiss him senseless and drag him to their bunk – anything to keep them from whispering their hate at him.

Lying in his bunk, with Will wrapped around him, he finds he's listening – waiting for the sound that will herald the end of it all. He wonders what Will would say if he knew who the voices were.

Late at night, in the quiet hours, Jack wonders whether the consequence of falling in love is that you get to carry the voices of those you love and those you've lost in your head forever. 


End file.
